The public has been concerned with the cleanliness of toilet seats undoubtedly since the invention of the toilet seat. The issue is of particular concern with public toilets, wherein there is no knowledge of its current state of cleanliness prior to usage. Public places, such as bus stations, airports, restaurants and movie-houses, provide facilities that are used by extremely large numbers of people, and it is not practicable nor is it practiced to clean the toilet seat between uses. Consequently, these facilities, on the whole, are not clean and not esthetic. For such types of toilet facilities it is desired to provide a layer of protective material between the user and the toilet seat or the toilet bowl. Such layer of protective material should be easily replaced for each user. The dilemma is further aggravated when a young child is the one in need of the facility. The child's parent is concerned with not only the cleanliness of the toilet seat but also the dryness. Another concern is whether there is toilet paper, and the condition of the toilet seat after the child uses the toilet, as most children are less concerned with their tidiness than the supervising adult. For these reasons, there has been an abundance of inventive creativeness in the art of toilet seat covers. A number of common sense approaches are given in the description of the prior art. We are aware of the following:
U.S. Pat. No.Issue DateInventorTITLE1,745,223Jan. 28, 1930LightTOILET SEAT COVER2,313,311Mar. 9, 1943Arter et al.TOILET SEAT COVER3,851,341Dec. 3, 1974AoyamaSANITARY TOILETSEAT COVER4,850,061Jul. 25, 1989EngelFOLDED TOILETSEAT COVER4,887,321Dec. 19, 1989MacLeanSANITARY TOILETSEAT COVER6,073,274Jun. 13, 2000McQueenSANITARY TOILETSEAT COVER
Rose Light, in 1929, designed one of the first toilet seat covers that was patented. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,745,223 Light discloses a seat cover made of paper formed into a slip cover.
One of the first uses of adhesive to hold the toilet seat on was disclosed by Charles Arter and Samuel Peskind in U.S. Pat. No. 2,313,311. The added adhesive strips to a rectangular sheet having an elliptical center opening.
Aoyama, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,341 describes a sanitary toilet seat that is annular, and has an adhesive that has a low adhesion to itself and can be folded face to face. The center section is detachably secured to the front edge of the inner edge of the annulus.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,061, Engel discloses in his patent a disposable toilet seat cover can be made of any light weight sheet such as paper, plastic material, or a combination thereof. Engel specifically mentions paper coated with plastic. He notes that disposable toilet seat covers usually define an elliptical ring, which has an outer dimension of the toilet seat and an inner dimension which permits uninterrupted bowel movement and urination. Engel's position is that known disposable toilet seat covers of the above mentioned types suffer from the considerable disadvantage that they are inconvenient to carry, awkward to place on the toilet and tend to slide off the toilet seat or become crumpled when the user moves. It is known to use toilet seat covers provided with a sticking mechanism in the form of small adhesive patches mounted on the bottom surface of the seat cover. Such patches are covered with matching pieces of wax paper which serve as a protective cover for the adhesive patches. The major disadvantage of such known toilet seat covers is that the user must turn them upside down in order to pull off all the protective covers to reveal the adhesive patches. Such patches are covered with matching pieces of wax paper which serve as a protective cover for the adhesive patches. This process is inconvenient and tedious. Ironically, Engel's invention is also elliptical in shape, and in his discussion of the difficulty in removing the wax paper from the adhesive he does not address the issue that the elliptical shape may be contributing to the difficulty in exposing the adhesive patches, because of the difficulty in aligning the peel such that the wax paper is pulled off in a straight line. Also, with respect to exposing the adhesive, the release properties of wax paper are relatively poor as compared to other release media, such as silicone, and the release would be much harder. Engel also points out that the toilet seat cover may also be provided with an inner portion, outlined by perforations or other detachable means and thus easily removable before use. The inner portion is circular.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,274, like U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,061, discloses the use of thin water proof layers, except in the case of this patent where both the top and the bottom have water proof layers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,321 discloses a porous paper coated with a water repellent coating. The toilet seat cover is folded like an accordion and is suitable for being dispensed.
The prior art contains a wide range of sanitary toilet seat covers that are designed to prevent the user's skin from being directly exposed to the toilet seat.
The prior art fails to provide a simple configuration that may be easily folded and packaged to provide convenient portability for caregivers of children, while assuring an effective barrier against impurities and wetness which may be present on the toilet seat, and which is also disposable. Furthermore, the prior art fails to provide a sanitary toilet seat cover that is texturally a poor adherent, thereby minimizing the difficulty caused when there is incidental contact between the adhesive and the toilet seat cover material. The prior art fails short of providing a toilet seat cover that is soft and pliable and comfortable to the skin. The prior art generally discloses circular or elliptical inner sections, not an oval inner section, wherein an oval is more easily initiated and removed from the edge of an ovalled inner edge. Circular and elliptical inner sections are more likely to tear when removing than an oval section, because the apex is easy to dislodge and initiate. The prior art does not teach a center section that is soft enough to be used as a wipe, and absorbent enough that it can be used as a towel. The prior art furthermore does not teach the advantage of a towel having a protective barrier to keep the users hands clean. A further feature that is not addressed by the prior art is the propensity of adhesive fasteners to delaminate when peeled from the toilet seat, either leaving torn seat cover or adhesive residue.